Brogan gripped the door hard enough that he could feel his knuckles turning white as he glared back at the three men.
“I don’t like your endangering my sister’s life, and if I could have steered her toward some nice, safe, simpleminded little farmer or accountant to ensure her safety, then I would have done it. But you’re what she wants. So I’m trying my damnedest to help you here.”
“You made her promise to stay the hell away from me,” Brogan accused him furiously. “That’s not helping me, Mackay. And that was only after threatening my fucking career if I didn’t stay the hell away from her.”
Rowdy and Natches turned to Dawg incredulously.
Brogan bit back a curse as he just ignored them.
“And I knew damned good and well she wasn’t going to keep that promise.”
The acknowledgment had Brogan narrowing his gaze on the other man.
“Then why do it?”
“Because she’s my sister,” Dawg grumbled irately. “And I needed time to finish what I was doing to protect her before she drew any more attention to the fact that she was most likely the only weakness you had. You weren’t doing anything to keep her out of your bed.”
“But you couldn’t come to me.” Mackay’s arrogance and stubborn independence reminded Brogan of a crazed bull staring at a red flag.
“You’re too close to Doogan. And if you weren’t, then we knew your partners definitely were,” Dawg informed him, his tone hardening. “Until Doogan asks one of us for help, then he’s getting nothing from me that he can use to pull me into his bullshit without a hell of a compensation package, Brogan. You know that bastard as well as I do, and you know damned good and well he’d use us up, then throw us to the wolves when he was finished.”
Brogan had no idea Dawg knew Doogan, let alone that he knew him so well.
“Agreed,” Brogan growled.
“What I’ve done instead is work from where it counts,” Dawg informed him. “That motorcycle touring club is bullshit. A bunch of veterans riding around sightseeing? Give me a fucking break,” he jeered. “I know exactly what it is, what it was started as, and what it will always be now that it’s established. Just as I know there’s not a chance in hell you’re going to be pulled into the inner circle of that group, no matter how long they let you carry that title of ‘leader,’ without our help.”
Brogan stiffened, his gaze going between the three men as suspicion rose inside him.
“Tell me what’s going on,” he demanded, suddenly certain these three men were the exact reason he’d never been able to break the ice where the club was concerned.
Brogan had known there was far more to that club than he’d ever been able to figure out. Just as he’d known that many of the tours they’d taken came far too close to the known locations of small militia groups rumored to be operating from those areas.
“Not without that compensation package,” Dawg growled.
Brogan shook his head. “Fuck Doogan. He’ll come to you; I promise you that. I don’t need Doogan to do my job or to protect Eve any more than you need him to tell me what I need to know.”
Dawg glanced at his cousins, each man meeting his gaze, communicating as only men as close as they were, who had fought together and worked together in the operations that they had been conducting in the county, as long as they had, could communicate.
Finally Dawg nodded before turning to him. “Your thieves aren’t in the motorcycle club, Brogan. And the files that have been stolen don’t have a damned thing in them that tie them together. What they do have, though, is the ability to draw three men out of hiding who were working with Chandler and Dayle Mackay in the Freedom League. Twenty years ago, Chandler was stationed at Fort Knox when a transport hauling more than six million in gold bullion was hijacked. Rumor in the Freedom League was that the gold was hidden by one man and the location of it supposedly encoded in a set of files at Fort Knox in case something happened to him before it could be recovered and used to fund the League. Timothy managed to acquire the files and we found the gold. What we don’t have are the three high-ranking military officers Chandler was working with.”
Brogan stiffened in sudden outrage. “You mean I’ve been busting my ass for two and a half years for nothing?”
Dawg grinned. “Well, you did get Doogan here. And you obviously drew the attention of the three we’re looking for. Unfortunately, now Eve’s drawn their attention as well.” He glared at Brogan for that. “It was suggested to Doogan that he pull us into this, because we’re the only chance he has of recovering the gold or arresting the traitors involved in it. When Doogan refused to come to us, and decided to find the answers without us, then we let him. Don’t doubt that you’ve done your part, despite his machinations. You’ve done exactly what we would have wanted you to do if we had been working together. But when Eve became involved, I had to adjust the plan a bit to ensure she was protected.”
“You’re the bastard Donny said has the information Doogan wants and will help only if Eve was involved with me?” Son of a bitch, and they called Timothy and Doogan game players?
“Not quite.” Dawg rubbed at the back of his neck as he grimaced in irritation before propping his hands on his waist and blowing out a hard breath. “We didn’t know who that was until last night, after Eve went missing from the restaurant. He came to us then.”
Brogan looked between the three men, more amazed that they had been able to accomplish drawing that contact out without raising red flags with Doogan, or with him.
“Who is he?” Brogan demanded.
Dawg shook his head. “You have enough. Get Doogan on board with the program. We want those packages. Full immunity, no matter what we have to do from here on out, no matter the investigation or the agent conducting it. Because I’m telling you, we’re getting damned sick of being pulled into the agency’s bullshit, threatened, our families endangered, and our freedom placed on the line because the agents in charge are too damned arrogant to accept defeat, or to acknowledge that they don’t know what the hell they’re doing once they get in these mountains.”
He was right, and the fact was that Doogan wasn’t the only agent with the opinion that just because a man was from the backwoods Kentucky mountains, then he was somehow not as smart, as quick, or as capable as one born and raised in the city. Or in Doogan’s case, the boardrooms and drawing rooms of the ultrarich.
Brogan shook his head. “Delaying risks Eve,” he protested. “Wrap the case up; then play games with Doogan.”
Dawg shook his head in the negative, his expression as well as Rowdy’s and Natches’s turning grim as they watched him.
“I have Eve covered, but that won’t last forever,” Dawg informed him, his voice tight. “Get those packages in place, Brogan; then we’ll finish it.”
“And if Eve gets hurt while we’re fucking around with Doogan?” he snarled furiously. “What then, Dawg?”
“What if she gets hurt because our hands are fucking tied, or later one of the others is hurt because our hands were fucking tied or we didn’t know they were pulling an operation beneath our noses?” Natches sneered, his eyes, so like Eve’s, glittering in fury. “I don’t think so, Brogan. We’ve told you enough; get it fucking taken care of; then we can finish this.”
“If Doogan doesn’t cooperate? What then?” Brogan questioned harshly, beginning to see exactly where this was going.
“If he doesn’t want to play ball, then you have other connections,” Dawg stated knowingly. “Use them.
“My father,” Brogan surmised mockingly. “This is where it’s been going all along. You want me to go to JD and have it taken care of.” Brogan rarely called his father by anything other than “JD.” “John David” if he was pissed with him.
Son of a bitch, just what he needed.
“I want you to do whatever it takes for me to see to my family’s fucking protection. And if you care anything about Eve, then that’s all you should want, too,” Dawg retorted heatedly. “As long as DHS is using this county and the Mackays to do their dirty work, then we’re all at risk. And that includes Eve, her sisters, and her mother. And trust me, you think she’s pissed at me?” he warned with dark emphasis. “Then how will she feel if one of her baby sisters, or God forbid, her mother, who nearly died of a chemical infection trying to feed Eve and her sisters, or her brother and cousins who all but got on their knees and begged for your help.” Dawg grinned mockingly. “If any of us end up hurt because you didn’t go to daddy to ensure we were all protected, then how do you think she’s going to feel?”
Brogan stepped into the truck, slammed the door, and started the engine.
Throwing the three men one last bitter, furious look, he reversed the truck and whipped it to the side of the parking lot before pushing it into drive and hitting the gas. Gravel spewed as the tires bit into the unfinished parking area and the truck shot forward and sped from the cabin.
Folding his arms over his chest, Dawg frowned before sliding his dark sunglasses over his eyes and turning back to his cousins. They, too, were watching the truck speed away, their expressions brooding.
“Are we doing the right thing?” Natches murmured.
Dawg could only shake his head. “Timothy and Chaya are right, Natches. As long we’re alive and living here, DHS or some other American alphabet agency is going to play games with us for the simple fact that they know we love our homes, our families, and our country too much to stand back and just protect our own asses. And if they get the urge to demand more from us, they can always threaten our family’s freedom to ensure they get it. We have too much at stake and too much to lose not to do this now, while we have the chance.”
“And you really think Brogan will ensure that it happens?” Rowdy muttered, unconvinced.
“He ensured that he had his own agreement and compensatory package before ever agreeing to work with Timothy Cranston and Chatham Doogan.” He shrugged. “And I know Director Bryce. He wants the gold. He has no idea it’s been found, and that’s been okay until now, because he wants those traitors more. They’ve been a thorn in his side since before DHS existed. I think this is the best chance we have.”
“Think Eve’s going to forgive you for playing these games with her?” Natches asked quietly, compassionately. “You should have talked to us, cuz. Told us what was going on. We work better together, remember?”
Dawg turned away from his cousin’s too-perceptive gaze to stare into the beauty of the mountains for one long moment. When he turned back, he took a shaky breath and said, “If she can’t forgive me, she’ll need you and Rowdy. I couldn’t chance her hating all of us. She’s too much of a Mackay, Natches. Too much pride, too much spirit and fire, and when she hurts, she hurts too deep. I didn’t want her hurting and feeling she didn’t have one of us to come to.”
Natches breathed out roughly and gave his head a hard shake.
“It doesn’t work that way, Dawg.” It was Rowdy that chastised him quietly. “She wouldn’t come to us. She’ll go to our wives. And that’s okay, because that’s what makes them strong. They’ll always have each other, and they’ll never be alone if the unthinkable ever happens and we’re not there anymore. And we have each other, Dawg. Our ladies take care of home and hearth, our babies and our hearts. We keep their lives, their families, friends, and homes safe. We do that together. No more hiding things, you got that?”
“I got that.” He gave a hard, sharp nod of his head.
“What about Eve, Dawg?” Natches asked again.